IAAF maintains ban on Russian athletes despite denials

The IAAF has upheld its ban on the Russian Athletics Federation [RusAF], it was announced on Monday.

Russian athletes were prohibited from taking part in international competitions in November 2015 following allegations of state-sponsored doping, which have been regularly denied.

Rune Andersen, the chairman of the IAAF’s taskforce overseeing efforts to lift the ban, explained there would be no change until world athletics’ governing body received access to samples and data from Moscow’s former anti-doping laboratory.

Financial compensation for the costs incurred by the taskforce also remains outstanding.

Andersen said: “The taskforce reported to the IAAF Council [on Monday] that two key issues remain outstanding for the reinstatement of RusAF.

“As we said many times before, even after the first meeting, when the reinstatement conditions are met, we will stand ready to recommend to the IAAF Council to reinstate RusAF.

“As I mentioned there are two outstanding issues, those need to be resolved. We are in close contact with WADA [the World Anti-Doping Agency] in order to get access to the data and as soon as we have everything we need and the AIU [Athletics Integrity Unit] report back to us that they have everything they need we will seriously reconsider our options and recommend to the IAAF Council for reinstatement.

“We’re not setting any timeline.”

Some Russian athletes have been able to compete in international events under a neutral banner providing they met certain criteria.

The IAAF World Championships are scheduled to begin in Doha on September 2019.